City Council Member Ikaika Anderson by Bobbie Poppler

Anderson is a born and raised Windward Oahu man. Politics is in his blood, well at least it runs in the family. Both his Grandfather and Granduncle served in legislature, each for 20 years. Anderson was raised by his grandparents Hannie and Whitney (who served in both chambers of the Hawaii State Legislature) and was brought up on their morals of helping and contributing to the community.

Anderson with grandparents, Whitney and Hannie, and two of his children

By the time Anderson was 12 he knew that he wanted to be an elected official when he grew up.

“Growing up in it really helped me want to do this,” said Anderson. “My Grandfather neither encouraged nor discouraged me, he always said he’d be there to help if that’s what I wanted to do.”

After graduating from Kamehameha schools, Anderson went onto the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1997, with a goal of pursuing a political science major. But after taking an entry level journalism course and enjoying it so much, he decided journalism would be a good alternative job if he couldn’t pursue politics for one reason or another.

Anderson ended up double majoring in both journalism and political science after realizing that he only needed a few more classes to do so. He decided to focus on the public relations sector of journalism because it would go hand in hand with politics.

During his senior year, at the age of 24, Anderson ran for the State House of Representatives. Although Anderson lost, he didn’t do that bad in the polls for a first time candidate.

Anderson then went on to work with the late City Council Member Barbara Marshall. Marshall passed away in early 2009, and Anderson ran for her spot and won to finish her term as City Council Member for District 3. District 3 includes: Kaneohe, Kailua and Waimanalo.

Anderson ran again in the 2012 election to retain his seat, and won outright in the primaries with 74 percent of the votes in the three-way race.

When not at the Honolulu Hale working, Anderson spends as much time with his wife and four kids. Anderson credits his family for his success and says,

“For that [his family], I am truly blessed. Without a supportive family, especially without a supportive spouse, you cannot do this.”

Anderson with his wife, Lisa and their four children in Waimanalo

As for future his future career, Anderson is not sure what is next, because he wants to concentrate on what is at hand now. For now, Anderson said,

“I want to ensure that we represent Windward Oahu to the best of our ability.”

Bill 11: A ban of all commercial activity at Kailua and Kalama Beach Parks, authored by Anderson:

Signs made by the Kailua community in support of Bill 11

The original purpose of Bill 11 was to define what would be permitted and to decide the maximum number of permits for commercial activity allowed at Kailua and Kalama. Anderson and the city council were going to set the number at two, but Anderson said,

“It became obvious very quickly that the community didn’t want any commercial activity at either one of those parks. So it went from allowing two commercial permits to none.”

Although Bill 11 bans all commercial activity, there are some exemptions in the law. Anderson says one exemption is for Hawaiian outrigger canoe regattas, because it’s the state sport.

ON BILL 5 and 11: “Kailua and Kalama are surrounded by residential communities that don’t have the carrying capacity nor the transportation infrastructure; the streets, the parking lots to accommodate that kind of traffic.”

“I’m a firm believer that we need to protect the tourism industry and do everything we can to help it because it’s our states number one economy. That said, though, being that its our primary economic driver, if we don’t preserve our natural resources that our visitors come here to see there is going to be nothing left for them to come a visit.”

Anderson at a Honolulu Hale meeting promoting Bill 11

ON RAIL: “Central and Leeward Oahu basically have one way in and one way out. Windward Oahu, we have four ways in and four ways out (Kalanianaole, Pali, Likelike and the H3), I firmly believe that if mass transit of some sort doesn’t go forward within the next 10 to 15 years we are going to have developers start coming out to windward Oahu to look for areas to develop because of the fact that we have four ways arterial highways in and out of Honolulu. Its just an attractive option, where as in Leeward, you can continue to build but theres no more transportation for these folks to get in and out.”

Anderson wants the Real Property Tax to stay the same for his District. Anderson said, “The real property tax rate for the residential class right now is set at $3 .50 and I’m hoping that in the next budget cycle that we can keep it there.”

Anderson is a supporter of the Rail Transit project, provided that the federal money is received. His primary reasons for supporting rail are: One, it will allow future growth for central and leeward Oahu. And two, it will stave Windward Oahu off from future growth.